Method and means for varying the count of roving in carding machines



Sept. 16, 1952' 5 Sheets -Sheet 1 H. G. DUESBERG ETAL METHOD AND MEANS FOR VARYING 'THE COUNT 0F ROVING IN CARDING MACHINES Filed June 29, 1951 Sept. 16, 1952 H. G. DUESBERG ETAL METHOD AND MEANS FOR VA .OF ROVING IN CARDING RYING THE COUNT MACHINES 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 29, 1951 berf E Duesb Sept. 16, 1952 H. G. DUESBERG E1 METHOD AND MEANS FOR VARYING'THE COUNT OF ROVING IN Filed June 29, 1951 CARDING MACHINES 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 flubrf Dues-ber Cecll A. Roi/e1". a 6 1/044 M44 fli'oflaaey Patented Sept. '16, v 1952 INES r Y fnuhertae.

' tasters-1 Leominstr, .and CeciLA.

Potter Templeton Mass., assignorsto Dues-q berg Bass'on of America,

ac'orporation of Massachusetts Application June 29, 1951, Serial No. 234,382 '7 17 Clair n51: (01; 19-106) This inventionv relates to carding L machines. It is particularly concerned with an improvement in thevmeans'andi method used with a woolen. carding. machine for controlling the countof the rovingproduced by thecarding op;

erations. 'K a In the disclosure hereinafter and inthe drawingsreference .will be made to a woolen carding machine but it is to-be understood thatthe method andimechanism usedvin, controlling and varying the roving count, is applicable to carding machines designed for use with other types -of The present invention is shown inv connection with a conventional woolen card in which there isa breaker card (not shown) and a finisher card including a conventional tape condenser for producing the roving in' the usual form. v As is well understood in the carding .machinmfield it has always been diflicult to. maintain the count of the roving exactly as required, If it should run heavy or light then it hasbeennecfifisary to change the rate of feed at the hopper in which ter ,v the results of the change of feed will not be known for some minutes thereafter as the fibers move slowly through the carding elements to the tape condensen Other; ,expedients have been used which have required stopping the card and changing gears at, selected locationswhich will have'the effect of varying the rovingcount. In all of the prior methods, ,however, it has been impossible to foretell with accuracy the resulting. effectpon the roving count until sometime after. the change in feeding rate has been made, or the machine has been. stopped f.or;gear;chang ingwithresulting loss of production. Thus, it

has been impossible to have any truly fine accurate'co'ntrol of the.roving oountthat may be changed or modified while the machine is in operation and which will produce the desired effect almost immediately, thereby permitting the operator to promptly sample and test the roving for count accuracy. Q 2

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a method of procedure and means for carrying outythat procedure whereby the count of the, roving emerging from the tape condenser may be maintained continuously and with accuracy at the particular figure-required while the carding machine remains in operation. The method involves the concept of varying the speed between the last cylinder of'the finisher card and. the doffer by'infinitely. small -incre-- ments sothat vthe Webb removedi-by the comb from thedoffer maybe variedin weight per unit Inc Fitchburg Mass I z of lengththe exact-degree required to bring the count vof the roving to thecorrectfigure if it has been found that the roving coming from the tape condenser has departedfrom the proper counthr The inventi 11 also includes the particular mechanism that has been devised to bring about the infinite yariation in rotating speeds between vlas cylindereand the do fer of th finis e card. The mechanism that-varies the dofier speed with respectto. the 1astcylinder doesnot, however, cause any variation in relative speeds betweenthe dofienand the tame condenser.

..T n o her o je ts f the inven i wi c me,mo e-apnare tes lled s ri n pr se wit eei i v ii-t cqmn n ins raw nes .Q

carding machine shown therein eornprise the First referring, to Kg. 1, the el ments 'o f the conventional cylinders "2 and 4, the donors 6 and I 8 and the usual workers W strippers S and fancies F which have not been numbered as the; constitute no part ofthe invention i f To the left of doffer 8 isthe tape condenser, generally referred to at II}, which produces the roving which is" subsequently wound on spools I2.

' The power for driving the entire finisher card unit is providedTby an electric motor l4 and.

between this motor and thedrives to the ele: ments is a variable speedlmechanism lfi, The output shaft 11' of t e variablespeed mecha-.-' nism It drives cylinders 4 and g as well as doifer 6. The cylindersare driven through belts 18 while doffer 8 is driven throu h a separate" chain driveZfl which in turn feeds its power through a second variable speed mechanism 22 and thence through. suitable, gearing, that will be more particularly described hereinafter; to the doffer 8 andtape condenser l0."

Referring now to and mechanism that isiutilize'd in operating-the elements andwhichenables the methodof the invention to be carried out comprises the motor [4' driving the variable speed. mechanism l6,

which may be of any. conventional type, such, as,

3, the driving.

fer example, the so-called Reeves drive in which the input and output pulleys, connected by a 5 belt, are spread andcontracted in a cooperating manner to produce an infinite number of variations'of speed between the motor I4 and the out; 'put shaft Il. It will'be understoodyof course,

that there are numerous commercial variable speed drives of the Reeves type on the market;

belts l8 and chain 29 but the relative speeds between these elements will remain constant. On the other hand, however, if. the speed of output shaft 54 of the variable drive mechanism v22 is varied in relation to the speed of the input and any one having suitable characteristics may 7 be used provided it is of the adjustable infinite ratio type. v The outboard end of shaft 17' is carried by a suitable bearing ZG and on the shaft areamultiple grooved pulley 23 and'a gear '38. .Pulley- 2B drives the plurality of belts'ls which 'tra'vel 1 over a corresponding number of large grooved pulleys 34 mounted on shaft 35 of cylinder 4;

Although not shown it will be understood that in the conventionalmanner a belt on a pulley on the opposite side of cylinder 4 drives a cor-- responding pulley on cylinder 2 so that thetwo c yIindersrun-at identical speeds. Doifert in turn is drivenby a small pulley 36, belt 38, pulley 40 and cooperating gears 42 and 44. This arrangement produces a substantial reduction i'n the rotational speed of doffer e in relation to cylinder 2. n

Gear'3ll-drives chain 2!] and gear-'48 carried by shaft 50 of the second variable speed mechanism 22-.= The variable speeddrive 22 likewise being-based on the principles of the Reeves drive has aninfinite number of speed ratios which may-be controlled by actuation of a hand wheel 52 which-when rotated in one direction or the other will change'by corresponding degrees the speed of output shaft 54 m relation to thelinput shaft 5!]. Suitable additional, gear reduction mechanismmay be included in the variable speed drive housing as at '5'! but whether or not speed reduction gearing is included it will have no additional effect in varying the relative speeds between shafts 50' and 54 which changes are directly under the control of hand wheel 52.

The various elements thatare driven by shaft 54 are'- as follows. A gear 56 mounted on shaft 54 drives gear 58 which meshes directly with gear Sflwhich is mounted and fixed on shaft '62, which shaft carries a smaller gear 64 which meshes with larger gear 65 mounted on shaft 68. Another gear Teen shaft 68 drives large gear 12- which isfaifix'ed to dolfer 8. The gearing just referred to is designed to cause normal rotation of doifer 8 atthe same speed as doffer 6. 7

Gear 516 on shaft54 also drives a larger gear I4 which is carried by shaft 16.; This latter shaft has thereon a smaller gear lfiwhichmeshes directly with a gear "as of like size, mounted, on

shaft 82. Shafts T6 and 82 carry the divider rolls, the lower being indicated at 84 and the upper at 86. The remainder of the tape condenser shown herein is conventional. and. consists briefly of the usual tapes 8'8, 89, 90 and 91 for dividing theweb and transferring it to the several pairs of rubbing aprons 92, '94, 96' and 98. The divided webs are shown after leaving the tapes at ['08, [132,104 and I06 toeinerge from the rubbing aprons as roving at I08, I I0, 'I I2 and I I4. The 'roving'is then wound on the spools I! in which form it constitutes the finished prod-' uct coming from the vcardingmachine.

Since both the doffer 8 and the tape condenser ID are driven bygearing originating with gear 56 on shaft 54, it is believed obvious that the relative speeds between d'oifer 8 and thetape'con denser l0 must remain constant. It is likewise .shaft 50, it is apparent that there will follow a corresponding relative change in speeds between the doifer 8 and'tape condenser It) on the one hand and the speed of cylinder 4 on the other.

' In other words, any. change in the setting of variable speedmechanism IE will slow down or speed up cylinder 4, doifer 8 and tape condenser H] correspondingly, whereas a change in the setting of variable speed mechanism 22 while causing no relative change between doffer 8 and tape condenser ID will cause a change in the relative speeds between these two elements and cylinder 4.

It is believed apparent, therefore, that while the finisher card is in operation with the variable speed mechanism [6 maintained at any given setting, adjustment of the hand wheel-52 of, variable speed mechanism 22 will at'once cause a corresponding change in surface speeds between the clothing of cylinder 4 and dofier 8.

Doifer 8 normally runs *at a low peripheral speed in relation to cylinder 4. Any further slowing down of the, dofier will result in more fibers accumulating on the clothing of the doffer for any unit of circumferential distance with the further corresponding result that the weight: of the web removed-from the dolfer by comb H6 will be correspondingly heavier and hence the roving I98, H0, H2 and 1 l4 leaving the rubbing aprons will likewise be correspondingly heavier per unit of length.) That is to say, any slowing down of doffer 8"wil1 immediately produce correspondingly heavier roving, thus changing the count of the roving in accord with the change in relative speeds between dofier 8 andcylinder 4.

' On the other hand, if the hand wheel 52 is actuated in the opposite direction so that output shaft 54is speeded up in relation to input shaft 58 then" there will be a corresponding increase in theperipheral speed of doffer 8 in relation to that of cylinder 4, thereby at once producing a lighter webb and correspondingly a less weight of-roving in a givenunit length. Thus, speeding up of doffer 8 will produce a lighter roving.

From the foregoing explanation the operator ofthe carding machine may at any time check the count'of the' roving that is being fed to the spools 12 from the tape condenser 10. vIf it is not exactlyas desired, the operator may then by "suitable rotation of hand wheel 52 immediatelyvary the'count'up ord'own as needed without interfering in anyway with the general operation ofthe card. That is to say, it'isunnecessary to make any change in the rate .at which the fibers are being initially fed to the machine nor is it necessary to stop the 'machine to'efiect a gear change at any place which has heretofore been required if the count of theroving was to be varied. It will further be understood that the resulting change in the count of-the roving occurs almost immediately followingthe shifting of the output speed of the variablespeed mechanism 22. That is, the change in count becomes apparent as soon as the fib'ers that are picked up by doffer 8 from cylinder 4 following the speed adjustment have reachedithe spools l2; This is a matter of seconds'and .en-

ables the operator to make at once a further 5 sampling andlcheck ofutheibountso that ii further adjustment is needed it-may be undertaken immediately. I

While thevariable speed mechanism l6 could be omitted in thatit takesno part in varying relativelispeeds between cylinder 4 and dofier. 8, still it is preferred that it be includedso' that theientiresfinisher card may be set to operate at'the most. desirable speed with respect" toathe breaker card Whose production is fed to the finisher card. Having once set the cylinders 2 and 4 operating at the proper speed, the control of the count of the roving is then solely up to the adjustment of the variable speed mechanism 22 under control of hand wheel 52.

When particular types of fibers are being carded with the machine operating at known speeds, it will be possible to determine by preliminary experimentation and by the use of suitable indicators on the hand wheel 52 the amount of change in speed to be made between cylinder 4 and doffer 8 and tape condenser H! to produce a desired change in the roving count. That is, if the operator upon sampling the roving finds that it is, for example, one percent below the required weight then he will know that by rotating hand wheel 52 in the direction and to the degree determined by the aforesaid experimentation, the resulting decrease in speed of the dofier and tape condenser with respect to cylinder 4 will result inan increase in the weight of the roving sufficient to overcome the one percent deficiency and thereby bring the weight of the roving to the required count immediately by a single adjustment.

In the absence of predetermined knowledge of the adjustment required of the variable speed mechanism to produce particular changes in the weight of the roving then it will be necessary to bring the roving to the required weight by the trial and error method, but this may be done quickly and while the card continues in operation.

Changes in speed between the cylinder and dofier and tape condenser can be conducted to any degree of fineness because of the continuously variable drive in unit 22 that provides-an infinite number of speed ratios without steps, all achieved through rotation of hand wheel 52.

It is our intention to cover all changes and modifications of the example of the invention herein chosen for purposes of the disclosure which do not constitute departures from the spirit and scope of the invention.

We claim! l. The method of changing the count of roving produced by a carding machine having in series a cylinder, dofier and tape condenser, comprising the steps of varying by continuous degrees, while said machine is in operation, the relative speed of said doffer with respect to said cylinder count of roving produced. by a. carding machine havinginserie's a. cylindenydofferiand tape condenser, said 'method comprisin'g...the steps of selecting a sampleof roving as it comes'from said tape condenser, testing said roving .for its .count andnotingrthediscrepancy:between said tested count and the. required count;:progressivelyvary ing the speed of said dofier .and tape condenser simultaneously'with respect to the speed of said cylinder while-the machine is in operation to a degree estimated to produce a web flowing from said doffer, of a weight that will result in roving produced by said tape condenser of the correct count and then testing said roving produced after said progressive varying of relative speeds between said dofier and tape condenser-and cylinder to determine the count produced in accord means comprising a principal drive for said cylinder, doffer and tape condenser which principal drive maintains a constant relative speed between all of said elements and a variable speed drive mechanism interposed between said principal drive and said doffer and tape condenser whereby upon adjustment of said variable speed drive w mechanism the relative speeds of said doffer and tape condenser may be maintained with respect to each other but varied simultaneously with rewhile maintaining the relative speeds of said dofier and tape condenser.

2. The method of changing the count of roving being produced by a carding machine having a cylinder, dofier and tape condenser comprising the steps of simultaneously changing the relative speeds of said doffer and tape condenser with respect to said cylinder whereby the weight of fibers per unit length being fed from said doffer to said tape condenser will be varied in accord with the change in relative speed between said doffer and cylinder, thereby to vary the count of roving being produced by said tape condenser.

3. The method of maintaining the required spect to said cylinder.

5. Means for varying the count of roving produced by a carding machine as set forth in claim 4, said variable speed drive being of the continuously variable type whereby variations in speed between said doffer and cylinder may be made in sufficiently small increments to vary the count of the roving to any small or large degree required.

6. A carding machine comprising a finisher card having at the end thereof in series the elements of a cylinder, doffer and tape condenser, a source of power and means for driving said cylinder, doifer and tape condenser by which the relative speeds of said elements will be maintained constant with respect to each other, a variable speed mechanism interposed between said power source and said drive for said. cylinder, doffer and said tape condenser whereby the absolute speeds of said elements may be varied while maintaining constant relative speeds, a second variable speed mechanism interposed between the drive to said dofier and tape condenser whereby the relative speed of the latter two elements may be varied with respect to the speed of said cylinder.

'7. Driving means for a carding machine which REFERENCES CITED: The following references are of record-in the file of this patent:

UNITED vSTATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,471,603 Headson Oct. 23, 1923 2,560,013 Varga JulylO, 1951 2,574,580

McKay Nov. 13, 1951 

